Following indications yesterday that more accounts were being granted access to the Diablo III beta test, the Diablo III Website announces the beta will indeed be opened this weekend to anyone with a Battle.net account for stress testing. The open portion of the beta will begin at 3:00 pm EDT today and will run through Monday at 1:00 pm EDT. The accompanying FAQ explains how this will operate, and notes that while Korean players cannot participate, they will be holding a separate invitation-only event in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The invitation only closed beta will continue as planned until May 1st. To get a head start, you can download the client now from Battle.net.

Then there's the 90% of useless combat skills that just didn't scale well enough to be used after normal difficulty. Again, you couldn't really know.

Sure that's fair. It's going to be a long time, probably years before someone can fully compare the skill subsystems of D2 and D3 in a meaningful way. For now though on the surface you get a lot more actual "skills" although I'm grouping rune variations on skills but less freedom for building a unique character which is important to some people. Hopefully the itemization will help this somewhat although most skills seem based on weapon damage which seems to homogenize things quite a bit.

"This is an open stress test – not a demo and certainly not a finished product. You may experience a number of issues and errors, but this is exactly what helps us to prepare for the smoothest launch possible on May 15"

nuff said... LOL

I'd hate to be the company responsible for the boxed game manufacturing... not a lot of time to tie up loose ends, go gold, hit production, package and ship in time for shelf release on May 15th. Damn they must have stream-lined the hell out of their manufacturing vendors.

Quinn wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 09:39:The thing I like about skilltrees is the fact that if you don't think and examine the tree properly and reflect it with the gameplay, you can make the wrong CHOICES and completely screw up your character. Making the right ones and in effect making your character stronger, gives me a loving sense of ACHIEVEMENT. It's all an illusion though, so the joke's one me, really. Sucks being a gamer.

That is the thing though. You can never really know what works until you've tried it. Diablo 2 with its skill-trees was a horribly imbalanced game at times, and in some strange way, that's part of why it was so much fun. But given how easy it was to completely gimp your character, it's equally easy to see the reasoning behind D3's change in direction. Especially since you rarely notice the gimpage until much later, when you've wasted a significant number of hours on a character that's no longer going to let you play with your group unless they also reroll or take a long break. Some people might find the discard-reroll exercise enjoyable, but I sure don't

For example, there was no way of knowing that the sorc's "Warmth" skill should never receive much more than 1 point, ideally. If you put 10+ points into that early, you'd be gimping your character for later. You really feel like you need it for the greatly increased mana regen early on, but due to how regen worked, and as your total mana pool grew (and with the addition of skill-bonuses from gear) it becomes 100% superfluous after a while. How were you supposed to know this unless you'd played the game before, or read someone's guide?

Then there's the 90% of useless combat skills that just didn't scale well enough to be used after normal difficulty. Again, you couldn't really know.

That's not to say I think their new direction is perfect. In fact I'm worried they have have taken it a bit too far in the opposite direction.. But it's hard to make any sort of judgement based on the meagre ~4 active skills and couple of runes you are able to unlock per class in the open beta..

Disclaimer: The above is written based on D2 v1.09. I had long since stopped playing by the time 1.10 brought the new synergy system.

Bhruic wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 04:23:In general I agree with a lot of the comments about not being impressed by the game. Right now I'm just trying to figure out if I would have been impressed by a version of D2 that ended, say, right after killing Bloodraven. Would that have given me enough of an experience of the game to really enjoy it, or would the general blahness of the early act 1 normal map have made me as unimpressed as I am with what we can see in D3?

Good point. I actually like Act 1. Still, it is kind of blah. Looking back, I think somebody who played the D2 beta coming from D1 would be have come off more impressed than a D3 beta tester. One, the time difference between releases. Two, D2 was such a huge leap - it's a lot easier to describe D2's new features (evident from the start) vs D3's (addition by subtraction, I guess?). Three, there was nothing else like it to compare it with. Fair or not, the bar is now set higher.

When I played D2 open beta/stress test, it was awesome. I totally wanted the game. For D3, nope! I will wait!

Krovven wrote on Apr 22, 2012, 21:10:Skill trees are an illusion of choice, always have been. The simple minded are easily fooled.

What an arrogant and, well... extremely dumb thing to say.

I like skill trees, which according to your reasoning implies I'm simple minded. Let me tell you something: everything in a game is an illusion. You feel good because you think you've achieved something? Illusion, fool! You've achieved nothing in your pathetic little life! You like a game because it's free-roaming? Illusion, fool! It's just like every other lineair game, just the same shit stretched out more.

I can go on and on using your shortsighted falacy.

The thing I like about skilltrees is the fact that if you don't think and examine the tree properly and reflect it with the gameplay, you can make the wrong CHOICES and completely screw up your character. Making the right ones and in effect making your character stronger, gives me a loving sense of ACHIEVEMENT. It's all an illusion though, so the joke's one me, really. Sucks being a gamer.

What seems weird to me is that as a wizard, I was using axes, swords, bows, shields, etc. Seemed like I could use pretty much any weapon I picked up. That was just odd.

Yeah, same for the Monk. "Generally" a Monk would use Hand2Hand (or a hand weapon) or a Bow Staff and that's about it as well light armor. With D3 I just gave my Monk "whatever". It makes having different classes seem... useless?

As "Krowen" said, "Skill trees are an illusion of choice, always have been.", then maybe classes and spells/skills are just illusions of differentiation.

Assuming the game is anything like Diablo 2, which it very much seems to be.... Basically, you've seen a small slice of Act1, on normal difficulty.If your playthrough went like mine, you've seen probably a couple of extremely low-level rares and mostly some random junk blues, that in no way represents the more class-specific stat bonuses you'll be seeing on higher difficulties. If you're the type of person who enjoys wacky builds, i.e. pacifist necromancers or melee-sorcs, you will probably be able to do that, but it will be significantly harder than any sane build and gear setup, and essentially useless on higher difficulties.

What seems weird to me is that as a wizard, I was using axes, swords, bows, shields, etc. Seemed like I could use pretty much any weapon I picked up. That was just odd.

Yeah, same for the Monk. "Generally" a Monk would use Hand2Hand (or a hand weapon) or a Bow Staff and that's about it as well light armor. With D3 I just gave my Monk "whatever". It makes having different classes seem... useless?

I had a few items drop that were restricted to class, but it seemed rare.

While I found, as I kept playing, I like it more, I still feel like it's a shadow of D2. I can't believe how much of a step backwards it feels...

Bhruic wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 04:23:In general I agree with a lot of the comments about not being impressed by the game. Right now I'm just trying to figure out if I would have been impressed by a version of D2 that ended, say, right after killing Bloodraven. Would that have given me enough of an experience of the game to really enjoy it, or would the general blahness of the early act 1 normal map have made me as unimpressed as I am with what we can see in D3?

Good point. I actually like Act 1. Still, it is kind of blah. Looking back, I think somebody who played the D2 beta coming from D1 would be have come off more impressed than a D3 beta tester. One, the time difference between releases. Two, D2 was such a huge leap - it's a lot easier to describe D2's new features (evident from the start) vs D3's (addition by subtraction, I guess?). Three, there was nothing else like it to compare it with. Fair or not, the bar is now set higher.

Bhruic wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 04:23:In general I agree with a lot of the comments about not being impressed by the game. Right now I'm just trying to figure out if I would have been impressed by a version of D2 that ended, say, right after killing Bloodraven. Would that have given me enough of an experience of the game to really enjoy it, or would the general blahness of the early act 1 normal map have made me as unimpressed as I am with what we can see in D3?

The general vibe I get is that the people having problems are okay with the base gameplay but the skill and rune system is leaving them cold. Given the games long development its more than a little confusing they had a complete overhaul this close to release.

I don't know, I still find it very fun in MP with some friends but then again most games these days fit that category so *shrug*.

What seems weird to me is that as a wizard, I was using axes, swords, bows, shields, etc. Seemed like I could use pretty much any weapon I picked up. That was just odd.

Yeah, same for the Monk. "Generally" a Monk would use Hand2Hand (or a hand weapon) or a Bow Staff and that's about it as well light armor. With D3 I just gave my Monk "whatever". It makes having different classes seem... useless?

As "Krowen" said, "Skill trees are an illusion of choice, always have been.", then maybe classes and spells/skills are just illusions of differentiation.

In general I agree with a lot of the comments about not being impressed by the game. Right now I'm just trying to figure out if I would have been impressed by a version of D2 that ended, say, right after killing Bloodraven. Would that have given me enough of an experience of the game to really enjoy it, or would the general blahness of the early act 1 normal map have made me as unimpressed as I am with what we can see in D3?

Dades wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 00:19:The problem with the rune system is that they came up with them a long time ago but didn't patch them in until beta 13. The game launches next month which hasn't really given them a lot of time to make the system deep and interesting. Right now most of the rune activations are either very situational or have an obvious upgrade path. The user interface for both it and the skill system is very clumsy and a big indicator of the problem that they tried to go back to the drawing board too close to release. It will change drastically and in fact already has a few times which makes defending their implementation a moot point.

Skill trees in Diablo 2 had some problems but eventually got patched into a very interesting mix of free form customization while still retaining synergies for people who wanted a linear path.

Well maybe I'll check back in six months to a year and see if it's any better. Right now, there's Torchlight 2 on the horizon, Path of Exile which has more interesting character progression options, and others like Krater and Grim Dawn, and maybe even GW2 if it doesn't suck. I think I'll wait and see how those turn out. At least they seem to be trying something more interesting. Doubt they'll take 10 years to do it too.

Someone mentioned C9, now that is the one. Fun game.

Isn't that a Korean MMORPG? Is there even an english version?

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell (I think...)

Dades wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 00:19:The problem with the rune system is that they came up with them a long time ago but didn't patch them in until beta 13. The game launches next month which hasn't really given them a lot of time to make the system deep and interesting. Right now most of the rune activations are either very situational or have an obvious upgrade path. The user interface for both it and the skill system is very clumsy and a big indicator of the problem that they tried to go back to the drawing board too close to release. It will change drastically and in fact already has a few times which makes defending their implementation a moot point.

Skill trees in Diablo 2 had some problems but eventually got patched into a very interesting mix of free form customization while still retaining synergies for people who wanted a linear path.

Well maybe I'll check back in six months to a year and see if it's any better. Right now, there's Torchlight 2 on the horizon, Path of Exile which has more interesting character progression options, and others like Krater and Grim Dawn, and maybe even GW2 if it doesn't suck. I think I'll wait and see how those turn out. At least they seem to be trying something more interesting. Doubt they'll take 10 years to do it too.

Quinn wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 01:42:You know, the entire time -- from the moment I read about D3! -- I thought the characters would have a talent tree, like in WoW. People moan allot avout WoW but I think the talent trees were very interesting, more so before they got dumbed down. It's beyond me why they didn't go for that and came up with this switching skills on the go and runes system.

Besides, didn't even Torchlight have a tree?

Blizzard, what the hell have you been doing for a decade?

And since when does hype have such an impact on me?! Despite my complains I still wanna buy the game, it'll be €44,- where I live.

Yeah, they should had kept the old trees and improved with WoW. Bah, I hate switching skills! Blah. It confused me.

You know, the entire time -- from the moment I read about D3! -- I thought the characters would have a talent tree, like in WoW. People moan allot avout WoW but I think the talent trees were very interesting, more so before they got dumbed down. It's beyond me why they didn't go for that and came up with this switching skills on the go and runes system.

Besides, didn't even Torchlight have a tree?

Blizzard, what the hell have you been doing for a decade?

And since when does hype have such an impact on me?! Despite my complains I still wanna buy the game, it'll be €44,- where I live.

Dades wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 00:19:The problem with the rune system is that they came up with them a long time ago but didn't patch them in until beta 13. The game launches next month which hasn't really given them a lot of time to make the system deep and interesting. Right now most of the rune activations are either very situational or have an obvious upgrade path. The user interface for both it and the skill system is very clumsy and a big indicator of the problem that they tried to go back to the drawing board too close to release. It will change drastically and in fact already has a few times which makes defending their implementation a moot point.

Skill trees in Diablo 2 had some problems but eventually got patched into a very interesting mix of free form customization while still retaining synergies for people who wanted a linear path.

Well maybe I'll check back in six months to a year and see if it's any better. Right now, there's Torchlight 2 on the horizon, Path of Exile which has more interesting character progression options, and others like Krater and Grim Dawn, and maybe even GW2 if it doesn't suck. I think I'll wait and see how those turn out. At least they seem to be trying something more interesting. Doubt they'll take 10 years to do it too.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell (I think...)

RollinThundr wrote on Apr 22, 2012, 17:18:I played it a bit more with different classes, every class except the demon hunter feels exactly the same, the rune system is so streamlined and pathetic feeling and apparently item drops are tuned to the point where finding a rare is pretty much impossible. I think I found a total of 1 in about 5 or so hours of playing. The game feels like a mix between diablo 2 and that shitty 90's action RPG Darkstone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkstone

So this is what took them 12 years? Seriously? Granted it's obvious the game was rebooted more than once during that time but still. 60 dollars for this 10 year old gameplay? My god Blizzard sucks ass.

Yup that droprate issue is what I tried to explain earlier. It's because of this overblown AH feature. Rares must be really really rare and epics near impossible to find, let alone legendaries.. which most of us won't ever experience, otherwise the AH won't make sense because people will get their good drops by simply playing without using the AH.